Youth Bible Study Party

 By Sara:

This month marked the end of almost two years of youth Bible study groups here in Soroti.  We hear that kids are going back to school in January, so we decided to celebrate what God has done through these groups with a Christmas party.  I told them long ago that I would have them all over right before they go back to school, so the kids have been looking forward to this for at least six months :)  

I invited all of the members of the three groups over to my house for the party and planned the details with representatives from each group.  I spent the day before baking lots of sugar cookies and preparing colored sugar and icing for decorating.  A couple of the kids did the shopping for food, so I went to their home to pick up the things they bought as well as cupcakes and a cake some of them baked, and the juice others had prepared.

The morning of the party, some of the kids came early to help me set up, and to cook pilau (spiced rice mixed with small pieces of meat), while I cooked chaya.

When everyone else showed up around noon, they had a great time playing Pictionary (or at least a version of it that worked for them).  The girls' team beat the boys, by the way - but just barely.

After that, we feasted on pilau and chaya.  Once everyone was full, there was still more food - everyone got to decorate 4 cookies, plus they got a cupcake and a piece of cake.  Decorating cookies was a big hit and a new experience for everyone except the kids who came over for a Christmas party last year.

We sang happy birthday to everyone, one month at a time.  The person whose birthday was closest to the party (2 days before) got to blow out a candle on her cupcake.

I am very thankful for all of these people and the ways I have seen God work in their lives over the past two years.  I will miss them when they go back to school!

They all wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Post-Lockdown Ministry and Fun Life Photos

By Anthony:

We really enjoyed the lockdowns in Uganda and made the most of them, although of course we had great compassion for our friends who struggled economically during that time. Once the lockdown ended at the end of September, life went into high gear with trainings, meetings, small groups, and visiting people. This post will share a few highlights about things that don't fit into other posts. I'll start with ministry events and at the end share other fun photos from life.

We had a preaching TLT training in Kachumbala with Pentecostal Evangelistic Fellowship of God Church (not the same as PAG). Leaders from this denomination from around a few districts gathered for the training. I led it with Robert Odukatum and also my Resonate colleague Stephen Omoko. There were 25 participants and we had to translate everything into Ateso. It struck me that we were teaching perhaps bachelor-degree-level biblical interpretation and preaching concepts to many pastors who have never finished primary school. When you consider that, it really makes you respect their commitment and desire to learn!

I've shared so much about TLT in the past, so I'll just tell one story. A pastor shared about his church that at the end of the service, the floor is open for each of the church members to share about their recent dreams, and the pastor has to interpret them for the rest of the church! He was not thrilled about this practice, and the rest of the pastors encouraged him to have it stopped. My co-facilitator shared about another church that did this, in which a lady shared about her dream of the pastor walking down the road, walking backwards, while urinating, and that pastor had a hard time interpreting that one for the church! Speaking of dreams, the most common question I get when people personally call my phone after my radio teachings is that they tell me about their dreams and ask for help interpreting. I have to help them think about how some dreams are from God but some are just dreams, I talk the issues through with them, and I pray for them.

Here is the group:

I had an interesting opportunity to teach a group of youth from our own church how to play ping pong. It was a joy to share that God is okay with us having fun, and that exercise is a good thing! Walter (in blue), one of our guards/groundskeepers who I taught how to play ping pong (and who is now an expert player), came along with me to teach them. 

Federico, a missionary friend from Argentina, also came along to help teach.

We also went to Kampala a couple months ago. We had a whole slew of different meetings with various Resonate partners and institutions. It's always a good time for high blood pressure, road rage, and near death experiences. I didn't take this photo, but it gives you some idea of the fun of driving in Kampala.

But one highlight of that Kampala trip was that we got to meet our new Resonate colleague, Barbara Kakemba. She is working with Resonate's Educational Care program. It was nice to meet her and her family and to see their amazing strawberry garden which is giving them good additional income.

When the churches opened up again, one of our church members took some pictures during the service. This was back when the chairs were still spaced and people were still wearing masks. Nowadays it's very unusual to see anyone wearing a mask in Soroti. Things went back to normal really fast. Yet somehow covid is not spreading rapidly here like in the US, and comparatively few people are hospitalized when they have it. We don't understand. Perhaps because Ugandans have less obesity or stronger immune systems? One new development is that a lot more Ugandans are willing to get vaccinated than before. Uganda is up to around 11% of the people having been vaccinated with at least one dose. 

I meet every other week with a group of pastors in Soroti for a book study. We are going through Prodigal God by Tim Keller. It's creating very stimulating discussions and biblical study for us as we think about God's grace, community, and church discipline. We meet under a tarp at our home and I provide them breakfast.

If Sara is ever around when I have meetings with pastors or Bible studies like this, she will spend time showing her garden to them afterwards or sharing seeds with them and giving planting instructions. Here is a photo of pastors taking home huge bundles of chaya that she shared with them.

After a pastor's meeting last week, we discovered many children out in the street a few feet from our gate. It turns out they had a pet monkey! We and the pastors had to take a look and one pastor fed the monkey a banana. The kids must have caught it in the village and then took it to town. Here is a video:

Some of you may have read about Resonate and PAG's church planting efforts in the Karamoja region. We are happy to share these beautiful photos of one of the new churches that is meeting outside of Daniel's home! These photos are already many weeks old, and the church has grown more since that time.

One of the most exciting things to happen in Soroti recently is that the new market opened, and it is enormous! Years ago, the market was a mass of little wooden shacks with tarps overhead, a maze of dark and dirty tunnels. Then we had a nice outdoor temporary market. And now the new market is the biggest building in town, almost like a modern shopping mall. This picture doesn't even show half of the structure. It's a beautiful place. Unfortunately we hear that people really struggled to get places in the new market and a lot of bribery took place. Some of our friends who had places in the old market failed to get places in the new market.

We made an effort to visit the homes and families of our guards recently. We have 4 guards, 2 who alternate working days, 2 who alternate at night. They each work only two weeks in a month. That way we have someone at home both during the day and during the night. In the last couple months, we visited Paul's family, John's family, and Raymond's family. Here is Paul with his wife Rachel and their new baby:

Here is John's family:

Here is Raymond's family:

I love that their home has a tree in the middle to provide shade and a gathering space for everyone in the big family. 

Raymond's sons keep pigeons as a small project. So the other day I bought two of them and cooked them for myself and Sara. I simply fried them for 2 minutes on each side, and then roasted them in the oven for 10 minutes. They were very tasty! I recommend them. We will surely buy them again.

Speaking of eating interesting things, our Argentinian friends, Federico and Belén welcomed us to a goat roasting at their farm. It was very good, and a lot of food! I didn't eat for the rest of the day after that lunch.

It was their son's birthday so he got to blow out a candle on the goat, rather than on a cake:

Last, a few pictures from around the home. This is our veranda many mornings because of our ducks. 

This is a frog who was living in one of our toilets for a long time before I finally scooped him up and let him go outside. At least with geckos, we do it the other way. If I catch them outside we bring them inside, which I did last week. Geckos are like our pets, a fun home decoration, and they eat mosquitos and bugs.

Trimming Caleb's hairy feet:

Beorn making dinosaur noises:

Witchdoctor Testimony and Homosexuality Article

By Anthony:

In this post I want to make you aware of some important articles and a video. First, some of you may remember Bosco, the witchdoctor who came to Christ through pastor Brian's TLT action plan. Resonate decided to make a video about it, and pastor Brian was able to get some photos and videos of Bosco. Resonate put everything together into one beautiful video. Take a look - From Witch Doctor to Disciple of Christ | Resonate Global Mission

Second, I want to point you to two articles. The Christian Courier in Canada invited me to help share a perspective from Africa about human sexuality, and specifically homosexuality, as the Christian Reformed Church debates these issues in our synods right now. I interviewed pastor Emmanuel Magambo for the article, a reverend in PAG who has followed the CRC closely and learned much from the CRC. He has also been involved in partnership with both Resonate and World Renew. I am immensely grateful to the Christian Courier and the person who recommended me for making this possible.

Here is Magambo's article - A Ugandan Perspective on Homosexuality
Take a look at the comments on the bottom to see how I and Magambo address some common misunderstandings about homosexuality in Uganda.

The Christian Courier published another article intentionally alongside Magambo's article about the importance of listening to voices from the Church in other countries around the world. It is also worth a read - Engaging the Global Polylogue.

Meet an African Pastor Podcast

By Anthony:

I started a new podcast called Meet an African Pastor Podcast. I started it just for fun since I really enjoy talking to African pastors. It's very informal and low tech. I'm doing this on my free-time so I won't be posting new interviews on a regular schedule. Here is the full description of the podcast:

This informal podcast is designed to help Christians around the world learn about the experiences of pastors and Christians in Africa. A different African pastor is interviewed on each podcast. The questions and topics vary but one of the main goals is to help Christians, especially from North America, listen well to their brothers and sisters in Africa and learn from them. Therefore, in most interviews there are discussions about the strengths of African churches and how God is working in Africa.

The interviewer is Rev. Anthony Sytsma, an American missionary serving with Resonate Global Mission in Uganda. Feel free to contact Anthony to recommend a pastor to be interviewed. (anthonysytsma@crcna.org). The podcast introductions were created by Andrew Rienstra.

Radio Ministry Article and Video Testimony

By Anthony:

Our radio program, Going Deeper: The Bible and Theology Hour, continues to go well. Thank you for your prayers and support! People especially appreciated the program over the lockdown when they were not able to go to church. But we have many listeners from all over our region who tune in faithfully, even after churches have been opened again. On our website, we had some issues with our file storage of recordings, so many of the older recordings are not working right now, but we'll hopefully have that fixed soon.

Stephen Omoko, my Resonate colleague, has been teaching a series on marriage and family, and it is extremely popular. Many people call him each week for counseling. Please read his excellent article about his counseling through this radio ministry:

Ministry in Uganda: Teletherapy is the New Normal

Some of us from our radio team also were able to visit Aremo Rachel, one of our most faithful listeners. She has been struggling during the lockdowns because she is a teacher and schools have been closed. She is blind and teaches blind students. She was greatly encouraged by our radio teachings and calls me often. She most of all appreciated understanding theologically why God allows suffering in our lives, and how he can use it for good. When we visited, we were able to provide some financial help and also connected her with a friend who was able to give her a Proclaimer (an audio Bible device). She now listens to the Bible every day and is continuing to listen to our radio program every week. Here is Moses with Rachel. Moses is a good friend and one of the translators on the program.

It is better to listen to Rachel's own words instead of just listening to me. Here is Rachel's video testimony:

Grill and Garden

 By Sara:

Some time ago, I had this oven/grill made out of a metal barrel by a metalworking friend.  I first tested out the oven for bread.

More recently, we tested the top part for grilling.

 

 

When we lived in Mbale in 2009-2010, Anthony and I visited a lot of Bible college students at their homes on weekends.  We would usually get back to Mbale late on Sunday evening and would buy roasted maize and an avocado on the street for our dinner.  It's exciting to be able to roast our own maize (which I grew) on this grill.  Unfortunately, I waited too long before trying to roast maize and by then, most of it in the garden was already too dry.  The few which were still a bit green were not bad, but would have been better if they were roasted at least a week earlier.

Still food, but somewhat unrelated, here's a lovely roasted duck.

And on to the garden.  Here is some of the millet I grew this year:

I put these garden supplies outside and in the time it took to go back inside for something, Beorn made himself comfortable. 

Then, there are the peanuts I grew successfully this year.  The last time I tried growing peanuts was in 2010, when a squirrel ate almost every single one of them before I harvested.  I've been afraid to grow peanuts ever since because this is what I got that time (it was very disheartening):

 

 

Soroti is a better place to grow peanuts, though.  So I overcame my fear and ended up with plenty of peanuts.

 

 

This is how they look when you pull them out of the ground:

 Beorn thought they made a nice pillow.

 

This picture is during the process of harvesting - there are much more than that:

Paul is the expert peanut grower and taught me what to do:

I was pleased to get a sack of peanuts from my small garden:

I also have a couple new additions to my garden.  First, a small pineapple patch!  It will take a while to get fruit, but I'm willing to wait:

And then a strawberry sack garden.  I was inspired to give strawberries another try by a new Resonate colleague, Barbara.  She has an amazing strawberry garden and generously gave me these seedlings!

My five little sacks have nothing on Barbara's garden!